The Department of Justice has extended to the deadline for a scheme for members of the Irish-Afghan community wishing to bring family members fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan to Ireland.
The decision follows confusion over whether certain child relatives were eligible to apply to the Afghan Admission Programme.
There is no box on the 48-page application form for an applicant to apply to sponsor their child sibling or the child of an eligible adult, such as the child of a widowed sister.
The scheme was due to close next Thursday, 24 February after ten weeks. However, clarity on if or how sponsors could apply for such children only came on Wednesday.
The Irish Refugee Council had written to the Minister for Justice to clarify this and other issues on 26 January, 2022.
Updated advice that a workaround was possible was published in the FAQs on the scheme on Wednesday 16 February, a week and one day away from the application deadline.
Today, the Immigration Council of Ireland, Nasc and Doras wrote to the Department of Justice seeking a two-week extension to the application deadline.
Brian Killoran, CEO of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said that it was "concerned now that potential sponsor applicants and their families do not have sufficient time to engage with the process before the scheme closes, and for that reason we have written to the department as a matter of urgency seeking an extension of the deadline."
This evening the Department confirmed that "in order to facilitate applicants who wish to sponsor family members affected by the situation in Afghanistan to come to Ireland, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has agreed to extend the period for applications under the Afghan Admissions Programme to 11 March 2022."
